MURDOCH. ] SNOW-GOGGLES. 261 
eyes, admitting the light by a narrow horizontal slit, which allows. 
only a small amount of light to reach the eye and at the same time 
gives sufficient range of vision. Such goggles are universally employed 
by the Eskimos everywhere! except in Siberia, where they use a simple 
shade for the eyes.’ 
We brought home four pairs of these goggles (i/dyigi), of which No 
89894 [1708], Fig. 259, represents the common form. These are of pine 
wood, 5:8 inches long and 1-1 inches broad, and deeply excavated on the 
inside, with a narrow horizontal slit with thin edges on each side of the 
middle. In the middle are two notches to fit the nose, the one in the 
lower edge deep and rounded, the upper very shallow. The two holes 
in each end are for strings of sinew braid to pass round the head. They 
are neatly made and the outside is scraped smooth and shows traces of 
a coat of red ocher. 
The history of this particular pair of goggles is peculiarly interesting. 
Though differing in no important respect from those used at the present 
day, they were found on the site 
of the ancient village of Ist’tkwa, 
where our station stood, buried 
at a depth of 27 feet in undis- 
turbed frozen ground, and were 
uncovered in digging the shatt 
sunk by Lieut. Ray for obtaining 
earth temperatures. The layer 
in which they were found was 
evidently an old sea beach, con- z 
sisting of sand and gravel mixed Fic. 259.—Wooden snow goggles. 
with broken shells, among which Mya truncata was recognized. The 
amount of the superincumbent gravel and similar material above this 
object does not necessarily indicate any very great length of time since 
they were first buried, as will be readily understood from what I have 
said above (p. 28) about the rapidity with which high hummocks of 
gravel are pushed up by the ice. The unbroken layer of turf, however, 
nearly a foot thick, with which the ground was covered at this point, 
shows that a considerable period must have elapsed since the gravel had 
reached nearly to its present level. 
The pattern of these goggles is to my mind a very decided proof that 
at that early date this region was inhabited by Eskimo not essentially 
different from its present inhabitants. Goggles worn at the present day 
are almost always of the shape of these, though I remember seeing one 
pair made in two pieces joined by short strings of beads across the nose. 
They are, I think, universally painted with red ocher on the outside and 
'See Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 547, Iglulik and Hudson Strait, pl. opposite p. 48, Fig. 4, and pl. 
opposite p. 14; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 234; Dall, Alaska, p. 195, figure (Norton Sound) ; 
also MacFarlane, MS., Ni 29 (Anderson River). 
2 Nordenskiéld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 99. 
sReport U.S. International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, p. 37. 
